Kalkan to Kaleüçağız

Kalkan to Kaleüçağız
Soon all the crews are up and about as we are leaving early this morning. We determine that some of our anchor chains are crossed so we carefully leave in the opposite order from that of which we arrived we there are no snarls. Thanks for that! Unsnarling anchor chains is no fun. And we are all off heading east again. There is a very light wind so we motor for a while until it picks up and then hoist some sails and drift along. We have to navigate carefully today as there is an island a few miles off shore which belongs to Greece and we have to stay in Turkish waters as the Greeks and Turks are not friendly neighbors!

I assign the girls to keep a look out for the Greek navy! We have our sighting compass out and we reach the first marker island in our route and as we pass it we sight through the compass and set out heading for the next small Turkish island. We zig zag our way along island to island until we are clear of the Greek waters. We have had some wind to sail and now it begins to pick up and we have a nice wind for our leg towards the town of Kaleucagiz. But the nice sailing leg was way to short and we drop our sails and head into harbor. We find a nice spot and drop our anchor. This will be our first night free swinging on an anchor. The girls and I don our swimming suit and do a soda pop. (jump off the bow of the boat and flop your arms around in the bubbles and yell soda pop) And feel almost instantly refreshed.

We start a game where the girls are try to get past me to the ladder and I am defending myself as the Kung Fu Tickle Master! Lots of giggling and splashing around. When we are tired and cool we climb back aboard and read in the shade of the cock pit. Soon Josh comes by in the dinghy and invites the girls to go with him to visit the other boats. I go below and start dinner. I bought chicken breast and thighs frozen last night but they are already defrosted. The refrigerator is crap on this boat. So I get out the onions, eggplant, garlic, olives and tomatoes and chop them while I am browning all the chicken. I put all the veggies and tomato paste and some pepper spread in a casserole dish and after a few attempts I get the top of the oven lit and in goes the casserole. After a while the chicken goes in on top.

Soon dinner is smelling fine and the chicken is nice and crispy so I go to turn off the oven and the knob won’t turn! Hmm… this is a new one. Got it. All boats have an electric solenoid which turns off the gas when flame is not present. Keeps the propane from flowing accidently into the bilges and blowing up the boat. I turn off the solenoid and the oven goes off. Later when it has cooled off I am able to turn the knob off. I sit in the cockpit with a gin and tonic and let the casserole coast. Then make a cucumber and tomato salad and cut some bread. As soon as the rest of the crew leaves for sinner ashore (their choice). I break out the plates and my father and I eat a nice dinner in the cockpit and watch the sun go down and feel the heat flow out of the air and the breeze is so lovely. A few stars begin to show as dishes are washed and we head into our cabins to read and work on the log. I am fast asleep when the other crew returns. We are hoping for better wind tomorrow.